Switched - Amanda Hocking

SWITCHED

Book 1 of "Trylle" trilogy

ISBN - 978-1-4472-0569-2
FIRST PUBLISHED - 2010
PAGES - 335
GENRE - Young Adult
BINDING - Paperback

AUTHOR - Amanda Hocking

SYNOPSIS - Wendy Everly knew she was different the day her mother tried to kill her and accused her of having been switched at birth. Although certain she's not the monster her mother claims she is - she does feel that she doesn't quite fit in...

She's bored and frustrated by her small town life - and then there's the secret she can't tell anyone. Her mysterious ability - she can influence people's decisions, without knowing how, or why...

When the intense and darkly handsome newcomer Finn suddenly turns up at her bedroom window one night - her world is turned upside down. He holds the key to her past, the answers to her strange powers, and is the doorway to a place she never imagined could exist: Forening, the home of the Trylle.

Just finally everything makes sense. Among the Trylle, Wendy is not just different, but special. But what marks her out as chosen for greatness in this world also places her in grave danger. With everything around her changing, Finn is the only person she can trust. But dark forces are conspiring - not only to separate them, but to see the downfall of everything that Wendy cares about.

The fate of Forening rests in Wendy's hands, and the decisions she and Finn make could change all their lives together.

FL Speak - Yes, another YA novel for me. I swear my habits are becoming bad. I picked this up after hearing that the author who never sold a book before 15 April, 2010, sold her millionth by now. So I decided to learn the secret behind her success.

Wendy is nuts! She is rude, sometimes fun, have a tough time controlling her emotions and she as stubborn as you'd expect a teenager to be. But then again, that's pretty normal. Ever since her mother tried to kill her, she has been living with her brother and her aunt, who takes great care to give her a normal life. But Wendy sticks out like a Marilyn Manson in a room full of Mickey Mouse. Her school life always suffers, she always ends up making someone mad and the entire family has taken to moving from place to place as a hobby.

This was what her normal life was like. Until she met a young boy named Finn in school who kept staring at her. And when she realizes that he can see her punctuation thingy, she confronts him. And then her real life unfolds. Wendy learns that she's a changeling, someone who was switched for someone else at birth. And now its time for her to come home. Home, turned out to be Forening, a lovely place somewhere in the United States. [sigh! why everything happens in the States?]

Although I realize I was expecting a more Hogwarts like world, it ended up being just another town, brimming with the Trylle kind. Anyway, Wendy got the shock of her life when she met her real mother, Elora. Even more shocking for Wendy was that Elora was the Queen of the Trylle's and that made Wendy, the bumbling Princess. Her life coincided with Anne Hathaway of the Princess Diaries and Wendy realises that she had a far greater chance of impressing Meryl Streep of 'The Devil Wear Prada' than her own mother. And then there's her questionable growing love for the tracker Finn.

Very soon into the new world, Wendy learns that being a Princess is by no means a luxury. Her days are spent learning manners, etiquettes, Trylle beliefs and their political system while systematically swooning over Finn whenever she can. But when she's attacked by an enemy, she just realizes that even in a place like Forening, she might not be safe.

What she does next may well plunge everything into chaos. Its a pity the author decided to end the first book before letting us know about the implications of dear Wendy's actions. A typical YA theme, a naive girl, a handsome boy, a different world. And yet Amanda Hocking carries everything with elan. The action is good and there's less of mush, even though Wendy looks like she'd never rest unless she made out with Finn. A good first book so far.

I've read bloggers giving some glowing reviews for this once. Those are also by those bloggers who eat up every YA book and that's their favorite genre. But when someone like me, who has a strong dislike for it, recommend you one of these, listen to me. Wendy is good, Amanda Hocking is good. A solid A+.

My Rating - 4 stars

PRICE - INR 299/-

Here's the book promo. enjoy